Suraj swiftly made his way from automobiles to web development with Masai

Suraj swiftly made his way from automobiles to web development with Masai

Suraj Bhan Singh (24) currently works at INAI Technologies Private Limited as a Frontend Developer. He has spent most of his childhood in West Bengal with his family and considers himself fortunate to have attended an English-medium school, despite having financial constraints.

Between class 5th and 9th, he spent most of his time studying Geography as it really interested him but as soon as he reached 10th, his curiosity moved to Science. He grew an immense fondness for subjects like Physics and Maths in the next 2 years which ultimately led him to take up Mechanical Engineering for his graduation. 

He majored in automobiles and hoped to have a flourishing career in it. However, the traditional style of teaching in his college left him uninformed about many things he wanted to learn to have a purposeful career. He knew that in order to thrive in the automobiles industry, he had to know the fundamentals of computer programming and it was in the 3rd year of college when he got introduced to it. 

Read this conversation to know what followed next and what led him to Masai School.

How did the on-campus placements go for you?

During placements, I got an offer from an IT company in Bengaluru and after that, I felt secure for a while. However, this didn’t last for long as the COVID-19 Pandemic hit the world and suddenly the world had come to a standstill. The company suffered massive losses and ended the employment of around 75% of people who were already working there. Naturally, I was dejected. 

What was your next move?

I didn’t have many things to do during the lockdown. To utilise this time, I decided to polish my skills in programming while also applying for various exams and jobs,I had to do something at least! I started learning basic and advanced C Programming online but it didn’t really help me a lot.

After a month, I called up a college friend to ask what he had been up to. He sounded very cheerful and told me that he had been studying at Masai School, a bootcamp setup that prepared aspiring coders to thrive professionally in a span of just 7 months. After talking to him, Masai School felt like something worth exploring. 

What was your first impression of Masai School?

I researched about it and I must say, I was highly impressed. I did not have to pay any fees unless I would get a job of more than Rs.5 LPA – it was reassuring in many ways as I did not have a lot of means to pursue a professional level course like this from any other recognised institution. I gave the aptitude entrance exam along with the interview and cleared them both. 

The initial days were difficult. I wasn’t someone who would usually get up early to study but the 9-9-6 schedule at Masai made sure that we stayed up on our toes; it was otherwise not possible to complete such an intense course in a span of just 7 months. As much as I wanted to feel active and enthusiastic about the course, the long hours in front of the computer gave me frequent back pain to deal with. 

However, once things got into momentum and I started feeling confident, everything got sorted on its own and soon I found myself enjoying the course more than ever. 

How was the curriculum? Did you find it difficult?

I enrolled for the Full Stack Web Development Program where we had to cover HTML, CSS, Node, JavaScript, Express, React and MongoDB in just 7 months. With the constant support of our mentors, Instructional Associates and industry experts who would come to have exclusive sessions with us, I was happy that I made the right decision by coming here. The group assignments also helped me in understanding the value of leadership and communication skills. With such a focus on technical as well as soft skills, one could hardly doubt the legitimacy of such a wonderfully designed curriculum. 

Let’s talk about your experience during the placements

As the placement season approached, I felt more nervous than ever. I was under confident when it came to speaking in English in front of a panel and this performance pressure also jumbled up the various concepts I had learnt in my mind – that is when the team at Masai came to my rescue. 

Before the placements, we were given one-on-one classes on soft skills and regular revision sessions to brush up on our technical knowledge. Soon, I regained my confidence and after 2 weeks of completing the course, I got placed at INAI Technologies Private Limited. 

The Masai Experience

Suraj got placed in a newly-founded company with hardly 4 frontend developers on duty. However, this did not put him in a spot as he was easily able to develop everything from scratch from the concepts he had learnt at Masai. 

After all, what’s better than applying your knowledge on things that matter than not applying at all, isn’t it?